Andrew Strauss celebrates his 50 on the second day of the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty Images

This is a match where the bowlers are biting back. Too often emasculated by sluggish pitches and balls battered to the texture of a suede cushion by bludgeoning bats, they have come to Edgbaston and discovered climatic conditions that have helped send the ball hooping hither and thither. So this match, should it survive the weather, looks like hinging on perhaps one individual innings of substance.

It could have come from Shane Watson, the novice opener who had batted with forthright confidence on the first evening, but if, in his slumbers, he dreamed of a century then the dream was shattered by Graham Onions' first delivery of the day. It might, too, have come from Ricky Ponting, who had looked ominously secure in scoring the 25 runs he needed to pass Allan Border's aggregate and become the highest-scoring Australian of them all. But on 38 he hooked wildly at Onions' bouncer and thinned a top edge to Matt Prior to give him his third wicket of a spectacularly productive morning, Mike Hussey having padded up to the second ball of the day and losing his off-stump for his pains.

No Australian has made the difference yet, for they struggled every bit as much as they had profited from a ragged England attack in the single session on Thursday. Seven wickets fell for 77 in the morning, those three to Onions and then four to Jimmy Anderson, who, reacquainted with his control and changing to the pavilion end, had the ball on a piece of string.

England faltered at the end, with the last two wickets adding 60 more runs, before Anderson and Onions finished them off with a further wicket apiece (five for 80 for Anderson, all wickets coming in 38 balls for 13 runs; four for 58 for Onions) taking Australia to 263, by no means a negligible total in the conditions. England then lost Alastair Cook without scoring, nibbling like a tickled trout in Peter Siddle's first over and Ravi Bopara too, for 23, dragging Ben Hilfenhaus insipidly on to his stumps immediately after tea.

Throughout this stood Andrew Strauss, who, had its bestowers not got caught up in the Lord's euphoria, might reasonably have been adjudged man of the match. Deep into the elongated final session today, he was at the helm once more, rasping out his shots into his favoured territory square of the wicket, and occasionally drilling straight down the ground as Hilfenhaus and Siddle, straining for swing that was eluding them where it had embraced England's bowlers, overpitched. He is batting with real authority. From him, England would have been hoping, would come the definitive innings. When bad light suspended play with 19 overs still remaining, he had made 64, with Ian Bell on 26, as England reached 116 for two.

It was an incredible morning, no better illustration of how the initiative can change in Test matches. Had England, eager to come out fighting, been over anxious on Thursday, treading warily on muddy run-ups? Had wise words been spoken subsequently? Whatever it was, Onions set the tone for the day, wicket to wicket and full first ball to Watson, who, caught on the crease was lbw, and then shaping one into an uncertain Hussey who for the second time in the series (but by no means alone) misjudged the line, and stomped off. His Test match decline after a blistering start is becoming precipitous and a concern for Australia. The word is that his place in this match was borderline, and he has done his cause no further help now.

Into the breach created by Onions, urged on by the cacophony from the Hollies Stand, came Anderson, a cutting-edge bowler who, innocuous with no swing but deadly with it, can get on a roll and stay there. Michael Clarke, fortunate to survive an lbw shout and a catch to Andrew Flintoff at second slip, both off Onions, was lbw to an inswinger, Marcus North swatted at one going across him and was acrobatically caught by Prior in front of first slip, a brilliant if inappropriate catch, Mitchell Johnson followed lbw first ball and, right on lunch, Graham Manou got an unplayable ball that took off-stump.

Over all this, for Australia, hung the spectre of Rudi Koertzen, an umpire who is getting so many decisions worryingly wrong. The delivery that dismissed Clarke looked suspiciously leg-side, which replays tended to support.

Nor was Johnson's demise any more secure, a tall bowler pegged back on his crease and struck towards the top of his pad. Even in the absence of technology, is there not a case for the square-leg umpire to help with an adjudication on height? The biggest bloomer of all, though, came when Bell had made 18. The delivery, from Johnson, was fast and, unexpectedly, shaped nicely in to him down the line of the stumps. It was knocking out middle had the pad not intervened. Bell is a lucky boy, Johnson cursed. The next ball was lacerated through extra cover. It is a bastard game at times.